As BuzzFeed investigative reporter Ken Bensinger chronicles in his new book Red Card: How the US Blew the Whistle on the World’s Biggest Sports Scandal the investigation’s origins began before FIFA handed the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 event to Qatar The case had actually begun as an FBI probe into an illegal gambling ring the bureau believed was run by people with ties to Russian organized crime outfits The ring operated out of Trump Tower in New York City Eventually the investigation spread to soccer thanks in part to an Internal Revenue Service agent named Steve Berryman a central figure in Bensinger’s book who pieced together the financial transactions that formed the backbone of the corruption allegations But first it was tips from British journalist Andrew Jennings and Christopher Steele ― the former British spy who is now known to American political observers as the man behind the infamous so-called “pee tape” dossier chronicling now-President Donald Trump’s ties to Russia ― that pointed the Americans’ attention toward the Russian World Cup and the decades of bribery and corruption that had transformed FIFA from a modest organization with a shoestring budget into a multibillion-dollar enterprise in charge of the world’s most popular sport Later the feds arrested and flipped Chuck Blazer a corrupt American soccer official and member of FIFA’s vaunted Executive Committee It was Blazer who helped them crack the case wide open as HuffPost’s Mary Papenfuss and co-author Teri Thompson chronicled in their book American Huckster based on the 2014 story they broke of Blazer’s role in the scandal Russia’s efforts to secure hosting rights to the 2018 World Cup never became a central part of the FBI and the US Department of Justice’s case Thanks to Blazer it instead focused primarily on CONCACAF which governs soccer in the Caribbean and North and Central America and other officials from South America But as Bensinger explained in an interview with HuffPost this week the FIFA case gave American law enforcement officials an early glimpse into the “Machiavellian Russia” of Vladimir Putin “that will do anything to get what it wants and doesn’t care how it does it” And it was Steele’s role in the earliest aspects of the FIFA case coincidentally that fostered the relationship that led him to hand his Trump dossier to the FBI ― the dossier that has now helped form “a big piece of the investigative blueprint” as Bensinger said that former FBI director Robert Mueller is using in his probe of Russian meddling in the election that made Trump president HuffPost

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There are sort of these weird connections to everything going on in the political sphere in our country which I think is interesting because when I was reporting the book out it was mostly before the election It was a time when Christopher Steele’s name didn’t mean anything But what I figured out over time is that this had nothing to do with sour grapes and the FBI agents who opened the case didn’t really care about losing the World Cup The theory was that the US investigation was started because the US lost to Qatar and Bill Clinton or Eric Holder or Barack Obama or somebody ordered up an investigation What happened was that the investigation began in July or August 2010 four or five months before the vote happened It starts because this FBI agent who’s a long-term Genovese crime squad guy gets a new squad ― the Eurasian Organized Crime Squad ― which is primarily focused on Russian stuff It’s a squad that’s squeezed of resources and not doing much because under Robert Mueller who was the FBI director at the time the FBI was not interested in traditional crime-fighting They were interested in what Mueller called transnational crime So this agent looked for cases that he thought would score points with Mueller And one of the cases they’re doing involves the Trump Tower It’s this illegal poker game and sports book that’s partially run out of the Trump Tower The main guy was a Russian mobster and the FBI agent had gone to London ― that’s how he met Steele ― to learn about this guy Steele told him what he knew and they parted amicably and the parting shot was “Listen if you have any other interesting leads in the future let me know” Steele had already been hired by the English bid for the 2018 World Cup at that point What Chris Steele starts seeing on behalf of the English bid is the Russians doing as it’s described in the book sort of strange and questionable stuff It looks funny and it’s setting off alarm bells for Steele So he calls the FBI agent back and says “You should look into what’s happening with the World Cup bid » … It’s tempting to look at this as a reflection of the general US writ large obsession with Russia which certainly exists but it’s also a different era This was 2009 2010 This was during the Russian reset It was Obama’s first two years in office He’s hugging Putin and talking about how they’re going to make things work Russia is playing nice-nice …That’s what I find interesting about this case is that what we see in Russia’s attempt to win the World Cup by any means is the first sort of sign of the Russia we now understand exists which is kind of a Machiavellian Russia that will do anything to get what it wants and doesn’t care how it does it It was like a dress rehearsal for that … It’s one of these things that looks like an accident but so much of world history depends on these accidents Chris Steele when he was still at MI-6 investigated the death of Alexander Litvinenko who was the Russian spy poisoned with polonium It was Steele who ran that investigation and determined that Putin probably ordered it And then Steele gets hired because of his expertise in Russia by the English bid and he becomes the canary in the coal mine saying “Uh oh guys it’s not going to be that easy and things are looking pretty grim for you” … I don’t know if that would have affected whether or not Chris Steele later gets hired by Fusion GPS to put together the Trump dossier But it’s certain that the relationship he built because of the FIFA case meant that the FBI took it more seriously … I think FIFA vice president Jérôme Valcke and others were recognizing this increasingly brazen attitude of the criminality within FIFA They had gone from an organization where people were getting bribes and doing dirty stuff but doing it very carefully behind closed doors And it was transitioning to one where the impunity was so rampant that people thought they could do anything And I think in his mind awarding the World Cup to Russia under very suspicious circumstances and also awarding it to Qatar which by any definition has no right to host this tournament it felt to him and others like a step too far I don’t think he had any advance knowledge that the US was poking around on it but he recognized that it was getting out of hand People were handing out cash bribes in practically broad daylight and as corrupt as these people were they didn’t tend to do that … The FIFA culture we know today didn’t start yesterday It started in 1974 when this guy gets elected and within a couple years the corruption starts And it starts with one bribe to Havelange or one idea that he should be bribed And it starts a whole culture and the people all sort of learn from that same model The dominoes fell over time It’s not a new model and things were getting more and more out of hand over time FIFA had been able to successfully bat these challenges down over the years There’s an attempted revolt in FIFA in 2001 or 2002 that Blatter completely shut down The general secretary of FIFA was accusing Blatter and other people of either being involved in corruption or permitting corruption and there’s a moment where it seems like the Executive Committee was going to turn against Blatter and vote him out and change everything But they all blinked and Blatter dispensed his own justice by getting rid of his No 2 and putting in people who were going to be loyal to him The effect of those things was more brazen behavior … It was an open secret I think it’s because soccer’s just too big and important in all these other countries I think other countries have just never been able to figure out how to deal with it The best you’d get was a few members of Parliament in England holding outraged press conferences or a few hearings but nothing ever came of it It’s just too much of a political hot potato because soccer elsewhere is so much more important than it is the US People are terrified of offending the FIFA gods There’s a story about how Andrew Jennings this British journalist wanted to broadcast a documentary detailing FIFA corruption just a week or so before the 2010 vote and when the British bid and the British government got a hold of it they tried really hard to stifle the press They begged the BBC not to air the documentary until after the vote because they were terrified of FIFA That’s reflective of the kind of attitudes that all these countries have … it reminds me of questions about Chuck Blazer Is he all bad or all good He’s a little bit of both The US women’s national team probably wouldn’t exist without him The Women’s World Cup probably wouldn’t either Major League Soccer got its first revenue-positive TV deal because of Chuck Blazer … At the same time he was a corrupt crook that stole a lot of money that could’ve gone to the game And so is he good or bad Probably more bad than good but he’s not all bad That applies to the Gold Cup The Gold Cup is a totally artificial thing that was made up ultimately as a money-making scheme for Blazer but in the end it’s probably benefited soccer in this country So it’s clearly not all bad … The money stolen from the sport isn’t just the bribes Let’s say I’m a sports marketing firm and I bribe you a million dollars to sign over a rights contract to me The first piece of it is that million dollars that could have gone to the sport But it’s also the opportunity cost: What would the value of those rights have been if it was taken to the free market instead of a bribe All that money is taken away from the sport And the second thing was traveling to South America and seeing the conditions of soccer for fans for kids and for women That was really eye-opening There are stadiums in Argentina and Brazil that are absolutely decrepit And people would explain the money that was supposed to come to these clubs never comes You have kids still playing with the proverbial ball made of rags and duct tape and little girls who can’t play because there are no facilities or leagues for women at all When you see that and then you see dudes making millions in bribes and also marketing guys making far more from paying the bribes I started to get indignant about it FIFA always ties itself to children and the good of the game But it’s absurd when you see how they operate The money doesn’t go to kids It goes to making soccer officials rich … When massive amounts of money mixes with a massively popular cultural phenomenon is it ever going to be clean I wish it would be different but it seems kind of hopeless How do you regulate soccer and who can oversee this to make sure that people behave in an ethical clean and fair way that benefits everyone else It’s not an accident that every single international sports organization is based in Switzerland The answer is because the Swiss not only do they offer them a huge tax break they also basically say “You can do whatever you want and we’re not going to bother you” That’s exactly what these groups want Well how do you regulate that I don’t think the US went in saying “We’re going to regulate soccer” I think they thought if we can give soccer a huge kick in the ass if we can create so much public and political pressure on them that sponsors will run away they’ll feel they have no option but to react and clean up their act It’s sort of kick ’em where it hurts … But also the annoying but true reality of FIFA is that when the World Cup is happening all the soccer fans around the world forget all their anger and just want to watch the tournament For three and a half years everyone bitches about what a mess FIFA is and then during the World Cup everyone just wants to watch soccer There could be some reinvigoration in the next few months when the next stupid scandal appears And I do think Qatar could reinvigorate more of that There’s a tiny piece of me that thinks we could still see Qatar stripped of the World Cup That would certainly spur a lot of conversation about this Ken Bensinger